The wilderness in late autumn was desolate, and the blood-red sun that was about to set in the west made everything that was originally withered and yellow look even more desolate. More than a dozen wooden carts headed south along the avenue covered with withered and yellow weeds.
The cart was not driven by horses, but by strong, long-haired wild oxen that were not even considered ferocious beasts. Their hooves were flying and they were not slow when falling. This kind of people only needed to be fed once and could go three days without eating or drinking without sleeping. The endless livestock are the foot power for more people in Zhulongzhai to travel or transport goods.
"How long will it take?" The tall and strong iron-maned horse lined up behind the convoy in a leisurely manner. Tang An, who had almost recovered from his injuries, looked at the endless southern wasteland and at the same time opened his mouth to ride beside him. Huo Xiaoyi, who was riding a yellow gelding horse, asked: "Aunt Huo, we set off before dawn and walked for a whole day without resting along the way. Can we reach Iron Luo City at night?"
"At most half an hour"
Huo Xiaoyi stretched out his hand and smoothed the hair that was blown by the autumn wind in front of his forehead. He pointed with his riding whip at the barren mountain that appeared in front of him and said, "Go straight on and follow the barren mountain to the east and you'll be there. I guess it's the sky." Just dark.¡±
"Is Azis Leng really dead?"
Duanmu Yingchun frowned in thought while riding on the horse. When he heard the conversation between Huo Xiaoyi and Tang An, he seemed to wake up, but he looked at the latter with a confused look on his face and asked, "Are you sure? Could it be that you were in a hurry at that time?" Didn¡¯t you see clearly when you jumped off a cliff into a river?¡±
"You can't die anymore." Unexpectedly, half a day has passed, but Duanmu Yingchun is still thinking about this. Tang An smiled and said, "I dare to guarantee this with my life."
"This kid used to be honest. After escaping from the barbarians, although he became less honest, he still wouldn't joke about this kind of thing." Huo Xiaoyi twitched the corner of his mouth, looked at Tang An and said with some emotion: "Aris was stunned. His name is very resounding on the border. Although no one has tried it, no matter how powerful he is, I didn't expect that he would die in your hands. Tang An, Tang An, how many things are you hiding from us?"
"It's not that I meant to hide it, I just didn't dare to say it." Tang An smiled slightly: "It can only be said to be a fluke. If he hadn't underestimated the enemy, we alone wouldn't have been able to kill him."
"If you don't want to say it, forget it, and you don't have to use this excuse to frustrate us." Huo Xiaoyi rolled her eyes at Tang An, then frowned slightly and said: "I'm afraid it will be a little more troublesome this time. You can just kill Azis. That's all, but you still killed the disciples of the great witch Luo Ke. The most important thing is that you ruined the appearance of the little princess of the Barbarian Tribe Alliance. Everything else is fine, but this last point is extremely troublesome. With her temperament, it is absolutely impossible not to kill you. I won¡¯t let it go.¡±
"Come just come, I'm afraid, the worst is to fight to the death." Before Tang An could say anything, Ling Tian, ??a top-grade boxer in the Jiegang period on the side, said with a solemn expression: "These barbarians have killed us villagers in Zhulong Village over the years. Isn¡¯t it enough? Last winter, when the rice was about to mature and be harvested, these idiots rushed over and burned it all. Later, we spent a lot of money to buy military rations from Tielo City and suffered a lot. Years ago, only they could do this kind of thing that harms others and does not benefit themselves."
"Did I say I was afraid?" Huo Xiaoyi raised her eyebrows and looked at Ling Tian and said, "I just said it casually, why are you yelling at me? You also said that Ling Lan has a hot temper and is not like a girl. Look at your temper, how can she be a lady?"
"I suddenly feel that we have been a little too cautious"
Lin Yu, a high-ranking archer in the Jie Gang period, spoke slowly, looking at Tang An with sparkling eyes, and he said with a smile: "We are all afraid that Tang Renjie will not give up and will do something evil to Tang An alone. Coupled with a mid-level archer and a low-level body-refining Lei Dong, the three of them were able to kill Azis Leng, Tuoba the Great Witch, and injure the little barbarian princess. Can Tang Renjie do this? We still need Are you worried about him?"
"There is also Li Ba, you don't know him, he is a top-grade warrior in body refining"
As soon as these words came out, Tang An felt that there was no difference between saying them and not saying them. He thought about it and said: "Also, when Tantai Xinyue came, she brought a lot of her tribe warriors, nearly two hundred people. These people can They all come with the belief that they will die for revenge."
Lei Dong rode his horse and walked aside without saying a word. He immediately grinned after hearing Tang An's words.
"By the way, I asked several uncles to conceal Tantai Xinyue's identity. Not everyone in the village can be as open-minded as you, otherwise the news that she is a barbarian would spread. If nothing else, I guess Divine Doctor Xue They all have to come to the door." After Tang An finished speaking, he added with a smile.
"It's natural." Huo Xiaoyi nodded, and his eyes fell on Ling Lan who poked his head out of the window on the bullock cart beside him. He saw her staring at Tang An curiously, without even blinking for a while, but she was He smiled and said, "Little Pepper, why don't you switch, I'll ride in the bullock cart, and you'll come out and ride a horse?"
"Okay, okay." Ling ?When she heard that she was overjoyed, she tried to get out of the car window with her head. Unexpectedly, her head came out, but her shoulders and breasts, which were extremely exaggerated for her age, were stuck and she couldn't squeeze out.
"How unbecoming!" Ling Tian was furious when he saw it. Ling Lan, who was stuck in the car window, immediately turned around and got in, stuck out his tongue and immediately pulled down the blue curtain.
Everybody looked at me and I looked at you. Except for Ling Tian, ??who had an angry look on his face, everyone else couldn't help but laugh.
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At dusk, Tang An and his party finally arrived at their destination.
Iron Luo City was far bigger than Tang An imagined. It was just a small border town in his mind. After all, the southerners and barbarians knew very well that Iron Luo City was just a show-off from some angles. If the barbarians In a sudden invasion, the 8,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry stationed in Iron Luo City were not enough to fill the teeth of the barbarians, so Tang An intuitively felt that this must be just a small town.
It was built according to the barren mountain. After turning the corner along the spacious stone road, Tang An suddenly saw a gray city wall blocking the way behind the mountain. The huge city wall, which was more than 30 meters high, extended all the way. It seemed that he couldn't see the end, and he couldn't help but be stunned for a while.
"This is your first time here. Iron City is no better than our village. Before the barbarians came, Iron City was the largest city in the north of our Wanjia Empire." Archery Master Lin Yu saw the look on Tang An's face. Shocked, he pointed to the city gate hole not far away and said: "Originally there were nine city gate holes like this. Later, after the barbarians came, the soldiers guarding the city blocked six of them. Now the north has completely turned into a desert. The village is a small town, and there are not many people coming in and out usually, so they simply sealed off the other city gates and left only one."
"I'm afraid there aren't many people inside, right?" Tang An followed the convoy and moved to the city gate. He watched Duanmu Yingchun dismount and pull the city guarding sergeant to the side, chatting and laughing for a few words. He probably stuffed something. Originally, The city guards who were still clamoring for inspection immediately waved to let them go and smiled at a few sergeants who looked at their iron-maned horses in surprise. Only then did Tang An continue to ask Lin Yu: "Isn't it an empty city?"
"That's not the case." Lin Yu replied: "After the barbarians were repelled by the black cavalry of the Daxia Empire, the residents of the villages and towns in the north, including some small cities, had nowhere to go and returned to Tieluo City. In addition, His Majesty the Emperor has exempted taxes here, and will reward a certain amount of money for every child born to encourage the population to multiply here. There has been no war for more than seventy years, and Tieluo City now has a population of less than 100,000."
"Of course, the population of Tieluo City has grown to over 100,000, and our Zhulong Village has contributed a lot to it."
Not paying attention to the strange looks or even pointing of the sergeant at the city gate, Huo Xiaoyi sighed and said with some emotion: "There is no big war. Qinglin Valley or some nomadic barbarian tribes cross the river from time to time to harass them, but they are just Target our Zhulong Village instead of Qinglin Valley, otherwise Tieluo City would be the one to bear all this. As for the war more than seventy years ago, we saw the shadow of the barbarians again. If the army did not force them to stay, Tieluo City would not be able to survive for a few days. It becomes an empty city.¡±
Nodding to express his agreement with Huo Xiaoyi, Tang An, who had already walked out of the long city gate and entered Iron City, was immediately attracted by the bustling market.
Night has fallen, and Zhulong Village has fallen silent at this time, but Tieluo City is still brightly lit, and the wide bluestone avenue of about fifteen meters is full of people, just like those entering the city for the first time. As a countryman, Tang An looked around with interest, looking dizzy.
"Did you see it? Yes, it's the one with the word "pink" on the side of the green gate. It's the best powder shop in Iron City. I bought some pearl powder and Roland rouge last time. It smelled so good. .¡±
After entering the city gate, she couldn't sit still anymore. Ling Lan jumped out of the car, pulling Tang Tang and Tantai Xinyue. With an excited look on her face, she walked along and pointed at this and that. Tang Tang, who had never seen the world, jumped out of the car. Tang and Tantai Xinyue were stunned for a moment, and then looked at the women who were dressed in extremely cool clothes. They couldn't see these in Zhulong Village. They were angry and laughing. They looked even more rural than Tang An.
"You take them to stay, and I'll go see General Wang Shen." After walking along the street for a short time, Duanmu Yingchun stopped and said to Lin Yu: "This time we want more feathers and arrows than usual. I guess we need to invite them." This grandson has to eat and drink a lot and take out and have a big whoring. We have to go back early tomorrow and we can¡¯t delay it.¡±
"Yes." Lin Yu nodded and watched Duanmu Yingchun and Ling Tian leave. Then he led Ma and Huo Xiaoyi and led the convoy into a nearby alleyway. After a while, they stopped at a "Jixiang Inn" "The door.
A waiter came out to greet the carriages and horses. Huo Xiaoyi and Ling Lan, who had been complaining that they were hungry, went in first. Lin Yu then looked at the others and said solemnly:"This is not the first time that everyone has come to Iron City with us. This trip will be the same as in the past. If you think you can escape, then just give it a try."
Those who came were all elderly people, and they could only drive the cattle cart with them. Their children and families were all in the pig cage village, but there was no way they could escape. Seeing them bowing respectfully and not even saying they dared, Lin Only then did Yu turn to look at Tang An.
"Don't you want to exchange silver tickets for gold tickets? Go now, the village leader also said that you have to go back early tomorrow."
"Yeah." Tang An nodded, then greeted Lei Dong and drove the bullock cart to follow Lin Yu straight to the bank.